Posted on 08/06/2002 6:48:19 PM PDT by Clive
AS THE 10 August deadline for 3,000 commercial farmers to vacate their properties draws near, cattle producers have embarked on a massive destocking exercise to clear their assets before packing their bags.
According to industry officials, the large-scale commercial cattle herd has been depleted by nearly a third and can no longer on its own provide the basis for viable beef exports.
About 3,000 commercial farmers were this year issued with Section 8 orders (eviction notices) to stop farming operations by 24 June and vacate the farms by 10 August.
If farmers served with a Section 8 order disobey orders to cease operations, they face a fine of $20,000 or two years in prison, or both.
While some farmers are slaughtering their cattle, others are selling them to newly resettled farmers.
The commercial cattle destocking exercise is likely to affect beef exports as the bulk of the exports came from this sector.
Very few communal and small-scale farmers export beef.
Cattle Producers’ Association (CPA) outgoing chairman, Tim Reynolds told farmers during the CPA annual congress held in Harare last Thursday that the commercial cattle industry was headed for doom because of uncertainties caused by the land issue, farmers’ failure to export due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak and poor prices caused by a flooding of beef on the local market as well as price controls.
Reynolds said: “ From our latest Commercial Farmers’ Union survey done two months ago, the commercial sector has been destocked in the region of 400,000 head from a herd of around 1.3 million. This is double the normal trends, and I would estimate that a far smaller number than normal would be female.”
“The saddest fact is that cattle being destocked come from the sector that produces 90 percent of the cattle for the export market.”
The 2001 cattle census gave the national herd as having been about 6.5 million of which 1.3 million cattle were on the large-scale commercial farms, while about five million were in communal areas.
It is estimated then that the national herd now stands at about 5.8 million.
Reynolds said while the major reason for cattle destocking was uncertainties caused by land expropriation, the beef industry was also facing viability problems because farmers have not exported in the past year.
I never thought I would see a country return to primal state
in real life. How bizarre.
1. Mugabe
2. Landless blacks
Followed quickly by:
3. Famine
4. Disease
5. Death
Oddly enough "Section 8" is the USA term for welfare housing.
If I'm not mistaken, "Section 8" was the term used by the military to designate discharges from the service for various mental problems.
Neighbor, for what little it's worth, every time Clive flags me to these articles, I include them in a mass email to letters to editors, and people like Rush & Hannity. Then a copy goes into DUBOB 9 here.
I'd be the first to agree that this is not nearly as effective as having the TV blare these headlines 24/7
( like they will, at dinnertime, when Zim/Southern Africa starts starving... )
but at least it's going out into the world, and radio show hosts are talking about it a little.
Ten years ago, almost no-one would have heard these stories at all... I wish we could do more, but at least this is something.
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